Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The (9 page)

‘Coffee, then,’ said another unfamiliar voice, and they all laughed, though it wasn’t quite the kind of laugh you wanted to hear, even on a sunny afternoon.

‘Let’s celebrate properly!’ said the woman who had spoken first. ‘Here - try this!’ There was a crash as though the wind had blown all the windows in. The women shrieked with enthusiasm. Next there was a thud, and then more thuds, and then a great deal of rattling, as though dozens of plates had landed on the table at once. Muffled, softer sounds followed while the women’s raucous laughter increased in volume. ‘Champagne!’ squealed one. ‘A toast to the Blood!’ howled another. Then they all began talking at once, each voice becoming louder than the others.

Billy and Olivia snuck back to the hatch and peered through the gap under the shutter. Where before the table had been empty of all but the vase of roses
,
a feast was now laid out: bottles of wine and champagne were popping their own corks, glasses sparkled in the sunshine, food sat on innumerable plates - far too many plates for thirteen women - and the food was so rich the children could smell it from where they knelt. Their mouths began to long for it, and for a brief moment they wanted to rush into the room to join the feast. Thankfully they realised this wasn’t a wise idea. They could see some of the women helping themselves to far too much food and drink, while others skipped and danced around the room, spilling wine and dropping whole cakes off their plates. The shrieking and laughing made the children’s nerves jangle.

‘I
knew
there was magic going on here,’ said Olivia.

This wasn’t the sort of magic Billy wanted to be involved with. ‘It’s time to go,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen enough.’

Olivia agreed. They crept towards the door, although it was unlikely they’d be heard with all the noise in the other room. Billy looked out into the corridor to make sure Lavitch, or any other security guards, weren’t around. Olivia checked as well. They tiptoed as fast as they could along the corridor, glancing over their shoulders to make sure no one was following them, and snuck down the stairs.

But when they reached the foyer, they saw the shadow of a large figure darken the outside of the revolving doors. And then the person to whom the shadow belonged appeared. He had his back to the doors, as though he was waiting for someone to arrive.

It was Lavitch.

‘The Sick Bay!’ said Billy. ‘Come on.’ He raced down the corridor hoping they wouldn’t set off any alarms (though when he thought about it, the women hadn’t caused any alarms to go off), and pushed his way through the
Staff Only
door. Lights flickered on automatically as he and Olivia ran down the stairs into the basement.

‘I hope there’s no one down here,’ said Olivia, stopping suddenly. She held herself tight against the corridor wall, and stared back and forth. ‘How will we get out?’

‘Trust me,’ said Billy. He’d remembered something about the Sick Bay from the other night. He’d noticed that the key to the exit door - the one that led to the outside steps - was sitting in the lock. It had a large green tag on it. He hoped it was still there.

They ran to the Sick Bay door. It was unlocked, which was a relief. He carefully pushed open the door, hoping Slaggard wasn’t waiting.

Empty!

They ran to the exit door where the key was still sitting in the lock. Billy opened it and held the door open for Olivia to come through. But she bent down and picked up something that had caught her eye.

‘Hurry up!’ said Billy, trying to get her out the door. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I’ve seen something.’

‘I need to lock the door behind us.’

‘Lock it,’ said Olivia, ‘and throw away the key.’ She was more interested in inspecting what she’d found.

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ said Billy. ‘Let’s hide it here.’ He pointed to one of the flag stones that made up the steps from the basement. It was loose. ‘We’d better both remember where it is, in case we need it again.’

After hiding the key they ran up the steps. Billy stopped suddenly, and as always, Olivia banged into him. ‘Watch out!’ he said. He’d looked up to see where the security cameras were. There was one immediately overhead, but as long as they stayed close to the wall it wouldn’t see them. They needed to be careful of the one that picked up the bushes and trees hiding the mini-door in the wall.

They crept along the outside of the Extension again. There were only two cars in the park now. They had just reached the part of the wall opposite the trees and bushes when they heard men’s voices coming from inside the building. They were on the other side of a nearby door and were coming closer.

‘We’ll have to run for it!’ said Billy. They raced towards the bushes and scrambled in under them, breathing hard. The men came out of the building, and one of them said, ‘What was that?’

‘What was what?’

‘Saw something out of the corner of my eye, a dog, or a rabbit. Went racing across the yard.’

‘Dunno. Suppose animals get in and out of here sometimes. When no one’s looking.’

The men strolled towards their cars. ‘Yup. Security’s not what it’s cracked up to be.’ They laughed, got in their cars and drove towards the main gate.

Billy finally allowed himself to breathe normally. ‘What did you pick up?’ he asked Olivia.

‘This. It was under the cabinet near the door.’ She opened her hand to reveal a short piece of glass stuck to a sliver of painted wood. The glass was thick. It was window glass.

Olivia put the piece of glass inside a pouch she carried in her pocket. ‘That’ll keep it safe.’

Meanwhile the two cars had driven out of the gate, which always opened automatically for outgoing traffic. It was about to close again when another car arrived from the outside. Lavitch ran over and pressed the button to hold the gate open. He was obviously expecting the visitor, who drove into the car park in a tiny metallic blue vehicle, the sort sometimes known as a Bubble car, but which was in fact, a Fortwo.

The car drove up in front of the old mansion. Lavitch yanked the car door open. A little man in a steel-grey suit slid himself out, and gave Lavitch a curt nod. Lavitch acknowledged his nod by slamming the car door behind him, which made the man jump, then accompanied him towards the revolving doors.

Billy said, more loudly than he intended, ‘I know that man. He’s the jeweller we saw this morning. He’s got Granddad’s diamonds.’

‘You didn’t tell me anything about diamonds.’ Olivia stood up and pushed through the bushes. ‘Let’s find out what’s going on.’

‘Wait! What about Lavitch? He’ll be guarding the front door.’

‘We can go through the Sick Bay.’

‘We don’t know where the man’s going. It’s a big building.’

Olivia sighed. ‘The only people in the building, as far as we know, are the women upstairs. So that man must be coming to see them. Or at least one of them.’

‘Maybe. What if the women have separated? What if they’re scattered around the building?’

‘With the size of that feast,’ said Olivia, peering out of the bushes, ‘they’ll be there for a half an hour yet.’ She made sure she wasn’t seen by the security camera, then ran across the yard. Billy followed a few seconds later, thinking that it wasn’t long since they’d done this already. They edged along the wall, found the key under the stone, and let themselves in. ‘I’m keeping this in my pocket,’ said Billy. ‘In case we have to leave in a hurry.’

Olivia shrugged. She was focused on finding the jeweller.

The corridor from the Sick Bay was as silent and empty as before. There was no one in the area beyond the
Staff Only
door, but in the foyer, at the bottom of the stairs, Lavitch was standing with the jeweller. Lavitch had his back to the corridor. He was speaking into the walkie-talkie he held in his left hand. His right hand was still bandaged from where he’d got it caught in the revolving door yesterday.

The jeweller was so short he could have fitted comfortably under Lavitch’s elbow. He wiped his brow more than once while his eyes flicked from one side of the room to the other. In his hand he carried a box, an identical box to the one he’d put Mr Mumberson’s diamonds into that morning.

‘Yes, he’s here now,’ said Lavitch into the walkie-talkie. ‘Right.’ He looked down at Adiblo. ‘She’ll be here in a minute. They’re finishing afternoon tea.’

‘I don’t want to disturb her...’

‘You won’t be disturbing her. She’s very pleased to hear your news. She insists on seeing you straightaway.’

The jeweller looked pale, and his hands were shaking. Billy was worried about staying where they were, with Lavitch so close at hand. He knew that even though the man was large in every respect he could move very fast. But he really wanted to know why the jeweller was here, and what he intended doing with his grandfather’s diamonds.

The stairs echoed the clatter of a single pair of high heels. Ms Nordal appeared and stood a few steps above the two men. ‘Mr Adiblo?’ she said, without a trace of welcome on her face.

‘Yes, that’s right. You’re Ms Venska?’ He bowed his head, as though he was standing in front of the Queen, and then had to look up at her from under his eyebrows.

‘Venska Nordal.’ She didn’t offer to shake hands. ‘Let me see the diamonds.’

Adiblo handed the box up to her. ‘They’re uncut, as I said on the phone. They’re worth a great deal of money.’

‘I’m not unfamiliar with the value of diamonds, Mr Adiblo.’ She opened the box, and was immediately captivated by its contents. ‘Beautiful. Beautiful.’ She seemed unable to take her eyes off the jewels. ‘Some scruffy old fool brought them in, did he?’

‘How did you know that?’ asked Adiblo. ‘I didn’t say a word to Mr Lavitch as to how they arrived.’

‘I know exactly where these diamonds came from, Mr Adiblo. I recognise their quality. They were stolen from my sister’s diamond mine, no doubt on the day she was murdered.’

‘What?’ The rest of Adiblo’s body joined his hands in trembling. ‘I know nothing about their origin. I contacted Mr Lavitch because he said, when he visited me the other evening, that you were interested in anyone wanting to sell diamonds
.
’

Venska attempted a smile, to reassure him. ‘There is no reason for
you
to be afraid, Adiblo. However, the person who brought these to you has every reason to be afraid. He is a thief. We will make sure he is caught. Today.’

Billy and Olivia glanced at each other.

‘Furthermore,’ said Venska, ‘you will not pay this thief any money whatsoever. The diamonds do not belong to him. They belonged to my sister while she was alive. Now they belong to the other members of her family.’ She closed the box, and put it in a pocket in her jacket. ‘You can tell the old fool the diamonds have been returned to their rightful owners - if you see him before I do.’ She signalled to Lavitch. ‘Show him out.’

Adiblo’s bottom lip quivered. ‘But he entrusted them to me. He’ll think
I’ve
stolen them!’

Venska ignored him, and walked back up the stairs. Lavitch turned the jeweller around, almost lifting his feet off the floor, and marched him to the revolving doors. He gave the doors a push, and shoved the jeweller through them (much more neatly than his own attempt to get through the previous evening). The jeweller barely managed to stop himself tumbling down the wide steps. Without looking back, he ran to his car, and drove quickly to the gates, which opened for him. He was in such a hurry to get away that he almost crashed into another car coming along the road. The motorist blared his horn, and Adiblo braked so hard he banged his head on the windscreen.

When Lavitch returned to the stairs, Venska called from above. ‘Come up here, Lavitch.’ Billy and Olivia heard the stairs creak under the guard’s heavy tread.

As soon as his footsteps had retreated along the upstairs corridor, Billy said, ‘We need to get home and tell Granddad.’

Soon afterwards they were back in the safety of the bushes. ‘That’s two pieces of evidence we’ve got,’ said Olivia. ‘Your Dad’ll have to believe you now.’

‘Except that Grandad told me it was a secret about the diamonds. I don’t even think Grandma knows.’

‘We’ll soon find out.’ Olivia pushed through the door. Stevedore, who’d become tired of playing with the skateboarders, was waiting in the bushes on the other side and began to bark uproariously. Olivia squashed his head against her chest and told him to shut up. To Billy’s amazement, he did.

When they reached sixty-nine Fivefold St, Adiblo’s Fortwo car was parked outside. ‘What’s
he
doing here?’ asked Billy. Through the front windows of the house, he could see his Grandad leaning over the jeweller, his angry face only inches from Adiblo’s nose. Billy’s grandmother was there too; she looked as though she was about to knock her husband’s head off. Their discussion was loud enough to hear from the outside, though Mr Adiblo’s squeaky voice was barely audible above the other two.

Billy and Olivia ran into the lounge. The three arguing adults didn’t notice them. Jerry was standing by the door with his teeth clenched tight. He gave Billy a nod, and scowled at Olivia and the dog.

‘It’s not my fault,’ said Mr Adiblo to Mr Mumberson. ‘I took the jewels to Ms Nordal with the best of intentions. She advertised that she was looking for diamonds. I assumed she was trustworthy.’